Top tips and threats ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games

As the hype and excitement around the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics continues to build, it is important to be aware of the potential cyber threats that often target such large global events. There were almost 450 million cyberattacks recorded during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, a significant 2.5-fold increase compared to the London Games. Given the expected number of almost three million participants in this year’s Olympic Games in Paris and billions of revenues, cybercriminals will not slow down.

Moreover, with significant technological advances in just the last three years since the Tokyo Olympics, cyberattacks have become even more sophisticated. The need for robust cybersecurity measures around this year’s games is more critical than ever. This is something that not only security leaders need to remember, but all people – they need to consider security risks before the event, data collection during the event, the risks and benefits of AI during the event, but also best practices when attending events.

Security threats before the event

If you are going to games in July and purchasing tickets, beware of scam websites trying to sell fake tickets for resale. Over 300 scam websites have been identified in recent months, which is an incredibly frightening number. So how can you avoid falling victim to this type of scam? Please note that you only buy tickets on the official Paris 2024 website: resale tickets. Always check the URL carefully as there will be many variations of URLs, applications and websites with very small differences that are fake. Moreover, be careful about buying tickets from people posting ads on platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Telegram, because you can never be sure that what the person is selling is actually real.

When it comes to your data, it is important to know that scam sites are designed to capture your personal information. Dishonest actors will attempt to obtain your phone number and email address and tell you that they will contact you again when the tickets you are looking for become available. On the official Olympic Games website or any real site, you will never be asked for your full login details, only your ticket payment details on the real websites or on the official Olympic Games app. If you are reading this too late and think you may have been scammed, contact your bank, block your card immediately and report the fraud.

Beware of malicious data collection

As millions of people travel to Paris this summer for the Olympic Games, cybercriminals are preparing to attack on all fronts, one of which is via guest Wi-Fi networks, which can be easily damaged. Anyone who thinks logging into public Wi-Fi networks is safe should think again. Cybercriminals can easily create open Wi-Fi hotspots masquerading as legitimate and free networks that, if connected, can compromise devices and install dangerous malware. Worse still, bad actors can also use this tactic to conduct Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks, where attackers interrupt an existing conversation or data transfer to steal login credentials, account information, and credit card numbers. Once an unsuspecting user connects to a free, malicious Wi-Fi hotspot created by an attacker, the bad actor has full visibility into the exchange. The last thing anyone wants is to cancel their credit cards and spend hours on the phone with banks and credit card companies trying to enjoy their games.

What about location tracking and biometric data collection?

It’s no secret that the level of video surveillance at the 41 venues of the 2024 Paris Olympics is expected to be one of the biggest records broken this year, far surpassing previous Olympics. You may be wondering why this level of surveillance? Despite the controversy, the French government sees it as a necessity to prevent terrorist attacks and help protect millions of participants and athletes. Many people have expressed concerns about how the data collected will be processed and used in the future. Many competitors will have peace of mind knowing that footage from this year’s games will not use facial recognition, but rather will rely heavily on body scanners, according to officials.

Software analyzing video streams will be used to detect threats in public spaces, and the systems will mark eight different event categories: abandoned objects, unusually large crowd, crowd suggestion, presence of weapons, person on the ground, fire and traffic violation. In a city that expects millions of visitors, officials and law enforcement believe that allowing artificial intelligence programs to review video footage will easily detect suspicious and abnormal behavior, making gaming a safer place for all participants.

Overall, with less than six weeks left until the games, it’s important to be mindful of the security threats that exist before and during the events. Be sure to pay close attention to URLs and ticketing sites and stick to official sales and resale sites. Avoid buying tickets on social media or apps like WhatsApp or Telegram as the likelihood of them being scams is high. Beware of public Wi-Fi hotspots, as bad actors will create open Wi-Fi hotspots masquerading as legitimate and free networks. Finally, please be aware that the level of video surveillance during matches will be at an all-time high, but there is currently no facial recognition, which creates the risk of misidentification, although collected location data could be accessed by nefarious actors.

About the author

Narayana Pappu is the CEO of Zendata. He started working in data science at Fannie Mae before the term existed. It was intended to build a better home price index than what was available on the market. Over the next 15 years at PayPal, Coinbase, and Doctor on Demand, he built and scaled low-latency, high-volume internal investigations, charting, and entity resolution tools for risk management and compliance. It has also launched consumer/commercial lending solutions in the US, UK and Germany, each valued at over $5 billion annually. He also led data monetization projects in partnerships between PayPal, advertising and payment networks; his experience is in building complex data solutions that are easy to implement, easy to use and generate additional value.

Our company website: Data protection, privacy observability and artificial intelligence management solutions | Zendata